We comment about our daily lives, and events around us, and in the wide world beyond. This is a photo taken of Hanne outside Athens Creek in November 2012, at Penticton, BC.
Thank you all for visiting our blog! We really appreciate your kind comments! All the best from Hanne and Michael!

It is maybe common that we humans have to repeat ourselves. After all, most folk have poor memories, but in another way, life is cyclical because of the seasons. We repeat our news, as with anniversaries of disasters for instance, and week-ends, with soccer matches and sepia photos for example. But I've just realized that we are also taking the same walks, and the same photos, on or about the same day each year. Here is an example in the photo of Hanne doing a tree-hugging act from 2010!
I believe Jenny Freckles will agree she does about the same? Yesterday, the American Robin started singing, on the same day in March as usual. Even wild life repeats as well!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Old buildings have always fascinated me, especially old barns. There are so many in B.C. I also like windows. They can have interesting curtains, shutters, reflections, and interior views. Once I saw a window in an old upstairs restaurant. The window was open, and one could see a couple at a window table enjoying a meal together. When the photo of the scene was enlarged, one could see the menu. If one had a high resolution camera, one could have read the menu and seen what the couple were eating. That sounds like the new camera technology they are soon to install in space, so we had better all watch out and behave ourselves, as it will be in real time, not like Google Street View. My son found a Street View image of his best friend washing his car in the driveway recently. His face was blurred out but he could be recognized by his hair!. What was this about "Big Brother Is Watching You" ? It is all coming to be!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Yesterday we walked in the sunshine up Lee Creek once again, to keep out of the cold wind. Unfortunately the gully seemed to collect the cold air at the bottom so it felt like below freezing! Later we went shopping and the stores were full of children, as the teachers are on strike in BC. I think they want smaller class sizes and more money, but apparently the government doesn't have enough money as they are spending it on other things like new roads and hospitals.
Did you get your iPad yet? The definitive model called "iPad" came out yesterday. Now you don't need a keyboard, you just dictate to it, providing you don't have a strong accent!
It only weighs 4.6lbs.....

Blue waters. looking North on Okanagan Lake at Three Mile Beach

More Clay Bluffs

Lee Creek

Hanne feeling the warmth of the sun. ( All Photos edited on Aperture 3 and emailed in )

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

This is the name of the new "Enterprise Business Park" near Oliver that is opening for construction this month. The park has been prepared with full service installations (including underground fibre-optic cables) and new roads and lane access for a cost of 4.5 million dollars. It is a joint project between the Government and the First Nations in the area. Chief Clarence Louie commissioned an impressive metal sculpture to be placed at its entrance. It was created by Virgil "Smoker" Marchand, an American Native Indian who was educated in his craft in the USA, and has many similar sculptures to his credit in BC. Recently the contract for the construction of a large new prison (nowadays we call it a Correctional Facility) was awarded and will be built and completed in this business park by 2014. It will house 360 cells. Here are a few photos of "Smokey's" work. He was reputedly called "La Poule" by his grandma which somehow translates as "Smokey". I thought it meant "the chicken?".....

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Ice, this is the time of year for it to melt here in the Okanagan. Some chaps were fishing on the ice the other day on Wood Lake when another chap came by on a bicycle, greeted them, then proceeded to disappear beneath the ice.....end of story.

Ice-Flowers? Snow-drops come on the first of March here...

Ice Patterns on Skaha Lake at Kaleden

Wild Swans and other birds preen and feed preparatory to flying North to nest. Vaseux Lake with melting Ice

North Skaha Lake Sunshine. No ice here!

Yesterday the ice patterns on Skaha Lake were interesting, with a lovely crescent shape to the edge, and cracks appearing with different colours of water depending on the sky above. There is only ice in the centre of Skaha, it is clear at both ends, and on Sunday some men were kite-surfing at the North end, it was so windy...
At Pigeon Lake in Alberta however, the ice doesn't melt until mid-May...

Monday, March 5, 2012

Hanne's next Christmas tree in the fog (from the several billion we passed!)

Last pictures from our trip through the mountains. At least no tornadoes up here thank goodness. We passed a little chalet that took my eye, so I will post a link. We hope you enjoyed your dip into winter and the hot pools! We sure did!
Chalet Europe can be explored here....http://www.chaleteurope.com/
All the remaining pictures saved from this trip, plus others from the last two weeks of February, are now posted here......https://picasaweb.google.com/104735934596560486863

Sunday, March 4, 2012

We were driven next to Kootenay Lake, which is a long thin ribbon of a lake appearing more like a river on the map: it is 104 Km long but only 3-5 Km wide. Kootenay is the First Nations name of the peoples living there, and means tall and slim like an arrow.

Waiting for the ferry to Balfour

View of the lake from Ainsworth

Painting on the wall at the Entrance- there is an extension of the pool right into the mountains...

Next morning outside our room

Bridge over the West Arm at Nelson

We first had to cross the lake on a ferry to get to Ainsworth Hot Springs, our last dip of the tour, before the 50Km drive to Nelson, where we spent the night by the shores of the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. We awoke to fresh snow in the morning....